Charts

Overview

There are a variety of chart options available to Second Site users. Second Site builds various chart types using HTML only, which are collectively called native charts. Second Site also imports charts made with TMG's Visual Chartform tool (VCF).

For people in the chart who have a person page entry, the chart entry links to the person page entry and vice-versa.

Native Charts

Second Site creates a variety of box charts in HTML format that are tightly integrated with the other pages in the site. Native charts are User Items and are added via the User Items Section.

Because they are all HTML, the page files for Second Site's native charts are relatively small. An example pedigree chart with 200 people is about 50K, which is a very reasonable page size for such a high information content. Names in the chart are clickable links that navigate to the appropriate person page entry. Each person page entry includes a link to every chart where the person appears. As usual with Second Site, you don't have to worry about any of the details. You specify the subject of a chart, and Second Site does the rest. (See Second Site News #007 for examples)

Please note that Second Site charts are designed for modern browsers. Browsers must be compliant with the CSS1 specification in order to display the charts properly. Firefox, Internet Explorer 6+ and Netscape 6+ will give very good results. Please see the Browser Support page for more information.

VCF Charts

Second Site imports charts made with TMG's Visual Chartform tool (VCF). VCF charts include more formats than native Second Site charts, and VCF charts can be edited and tweaked prior to being imported. Unlike Second Site charts, however, VCF charts are imported as JPEG images and as a result they will use more disk space and network bandwidth. Web site users will have to analyze the size of their VCF charts to determine if they are within reasonable limits. Large charts aren't a problem when you use Second Site to create a site on removable media.

You may import as many VCF charts as you want.

In most ways, the VCF charts work like Second Site's native charts. VCF charts include links back and forth from the charts to the narratives, the chart name is in the list of charts, etc.